This invention relates to methods of deodorizing by the use of a particular ion exchange manufacture and more particularly to such methods using that ion exchange manufacture embodied in particular articles and to those particular articles.
The literature of the prior art, such as the reference book "Ion Exchangers in Organic and Biochemistry" by Calmon and Kressman, published by Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, copyright 1957, records attempts at deodorizing by the use of ion exchangers. Typically, as for example, by Ikai in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Vol. 23, pp. 411 ff. (1954), such attempts were reported as employing ion exchange material in the categories of ion exchange resins ground into powders and used as powders, per se, or as powders mixed with a vehicle to constitute an oily or liquid preparation which was more or less sticky. The literature also reports attempted deodorizing by use of a catamenial pad having a cavity enclosing a quantity of bentonite, known to have ion exchange properties. U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,327 discloses biocidal compositions in which colloidal particles of anion exchange resin, described not as having any deodorant effect but only as the activating germicidal principle, are included in solid or liquid soap compositions, detergents, cosmetics, deodorants and the like.
For reasons clear from the following discussion, none of these prior art methods of deodorizing have proven practical. To deodorize an odorant involves rendering essentially imperceptible the odor from, or rendering negligible the disagreeableness of a malodor from, the odorant. To position, in contact with odorant emitted from a source, a quantity of ion exchange material sufficient to deodorize the odorant and to maintain that material in position to, and continuing to, deodorize for a period of time of practical length in those instances where the source continues to emit odorant, has not, with the forms of material used in prior art attempts at deodorizing, been possible to accomplish with efficacy, ease, comfort, and convenience of handling, positioning, and maintaining in position, nor with the ability to regenerate the material conveniently and economically in those instances where this ability would be especially desirable. That is, the prior art attempts at deodorizing with ion exchangers were not practically effective. Certain of the reasons for this will be apparent from the following exemplary discussion.
In attempts to deodorize the odorants issuing from the human axilla, finely powered ion exchange resins were dusted thickly over the axillary skin. Obviously, a single grain or particle of such powder being exceedingly small, i.e. of negligible dimensions, rather than substantially extended would not deodorize effectively since it would not contain an appreciable number of ion exchange sites. The mass of powder, taken as a whole, being made up of a plurality of components grossly discernible as separate from one another, namely, the grains or particles, with each element free to move independently of its immediate neighbor essentially an indefinite distance apart from that neighbor, constituted a fluid. In other words, these components are, in normal use, dispersible. The deodorant effect of this fluid, i.e., the mass of powder, did not last long because of the washing away of the powder by sweat produced by the axilla and hence this method was impractical. In other words, in normal use, the ion exchange powder components are in fact dispersed by the washing away effected by the sweat and thus cannot and do not remain in contact with the odorant for a practical length of time.
When, in an attempt to improve adhesion of the material to the skin of the armpit, the powder was mixed variously with such vehicles as petrolatum, ointments, surface active agents, mucilages and mixtures thereof, the resulting products still remained fluid and suffered additionally from other disadvantages contributing to ineffective deodorizing such as blocking of the sweat from the resin by the hydrophobic petrolatum, lack of adhesion encouraged by some of the other ingredients, and uncomfortable sensation by the user.
In the case of the aforementioned catamenial pad, the amount of bentonite required even to approach adequate deodorizing of the user's excretion for a practical length of time rendered the pad impractically bulky. Furthermore, the mass of bentonite as a whole being fluid, it tended to run down to the lower end of the cavity in the pad and there accumulate as an inconvenient bulge.
As for the colloidal anion exchange resin particles of U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,327, reported only as germicidal and not deodorant, the disclosed embodiments all render them, in normal use, fluid and hence dispersible, as is seen from the following. Soap and detergents in solid form, i.e. cake or powder or chip, must, in normal use, to accomplish their intended function, be moistened with a liquid, typically water, and hence in normal use their ingredients are fluid. Liquid soap compositions and liquid detergents are obviously fluid. The colloidal resin particles embodied (for germicidal purposes only, according to the above mentioned patent), in cosmetics or deodorants constituted as pastes, or sticks which are in effect pastes, or liquids are obviously, in normal use, fluid and dispersible since the embodiments as a whole are fluid. Those masses of particles of resin which might be embodied in cosmetics or deodorants applied as powders are also, in normal use, fluid and dispersible, as previously pointed out in the discussion of powdered resins applied to the axilla.
An object of the invention is to provide, using particular types of ion exchange materials and more particularly certain articles embodying those materials, methods of deodorizing which are effective over a practical length of time, comfortable, convenient, and economical to use, and are especially applicable on the human body.
Another object of this invention is to provide those certain articles, embodying those particular types of ion exchange materials, especially useful in carrying out the methods of the invention.
Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following description.
This invention comprehends the discovery that practical, effective deodorizing is accomplished by contacting an odorant with solid, substantially extended material endowed with anion exchange sites capable of sorbing anions from odorant at the pH existing in the region of contact, the material being, in normal use, essentially non-fluid and, essentially, non-dispersible, any components of the material that are endowed with anion exchange sites and are grossly discernible as distinct from one another being, when considered as a group, constrained against any significant flowing so that these components as a group exhibit the characteristic of being non-fluid and thus non-dispersible.
Since the concept of the invention involves the employment of anion exchange material which is non-fluid, and elements of which bearing ion exchange sites are, therefore, in normal use, essentially non-dispersible, it is apparent that in the practice of the method of the invention the ion exchange sites of the material can be held in contact with odorant for any desired practical length of time. For the same reason it is apparent that an article of the invention designed for one-time use will retain its ion exchange sites in the locations determined by the origional placement of the article in use until the article is moved. Likewise an article of the invention designed for repeated use will thus remain intact in the sense that in normal use it retains all of its ion exchange sites since they are not dispersed.
The word "extended", as here applied to the forms of ion exchange material and as also used in the prior art (Calmon and Kressman op.cit.p.188), means having appreciable dimensions. It thus excludes forms such as particles, granules, grains of powder, etc. which are regarded as being of negligible dimensions. It includes such forms as rod, sheet, fiber, filament, roving, yarn, thread, sliver, linters, fabric, and the like, both when such items are intrinsically provided with ion exchange sites and when such items are provided with ion exchange sites essentially extrinsically. This latter situation is exemplified by constructions in which ordinary granular ion exchange materials or the like are retained by a base or substrate. The granules or particles can be affixed by, for example, gluing them to a sheet of any suitable substance such as paper, plastic, or cloth; they can be inbedded into a plastic matrix; they can be tethered to nappy fabric by gluing them to the projecting fibers or threads of the pile of the fabric; they can be tightly quilted into, or otherwise secured against flowing within, pockets or cavities in base material.
By describing the material, or those elements thereof which are endowed with ion exchange sites, as being essentially nondispersible in normal use is meant that the portions of the material bearing ion exchange sites cannot in normal use flow or move indefinitely far away from one another, i.e. disperse. Of course, with any material subject to friction there will always be some minute rubbing off of part thereof as dust which can technically be named dispersion of the material as the dust particles scatter away from one another. Such attritive ablation, or dispersion, of the material of this invention is not required by, and hence not essential to, the material's normal execution of its intended function. The dispersion, if any, would be only incidental to the normal use of the material and would, in any case, involve an exceedingly minor amount of material. Thus, the material is fairly defined as essentially non-dispersible. In contrast, dispersibility is an attribute completely necessarily inherent in, implicit in, required by, and essential to the mechanism by which the soap in normal use carries out its normal function. The soap is obviously essentially dispersible since it is only by substantially unlimited separation of the particles of the soap from the cake and from each other, either by solution or by friction, that the soap can accomplish its normal use of being applied to a surface to be cleaned. The same characteristic of being essentially dispersible is obviously implicit in such items as conventional liquid, stick, and paste cosmetics and deodorants since it is only by dispersion that these materials can be applied in their normal use to a surface intended to be coated by them.
The invention additionally includes manufactures configured into shaped articles. To understand this part of the inventive concept it must be appreciated that a "shaped article" herein means an article fabricated for a particular use per se and shaped and finished in a manner to suit it to that use. It contrasts with and excludes, in general, material in bulk whose usual "use" is only to be subdivided into smaller portions (dimensioned for the proper size of a contemplated shaped article) to be fabricated, shaped, and finished into "shaped articles". Thus, for example, sheeting is bulk material whereas "a sheet", in the sense of an item of bedclothes, is a "shaped article", having been cut from the sheeting to shape it to the dimensions of a particular size bed and finished as by hemming. Likewise a bolt of cloth is bulk material whereas a washcloth made from the cloth is a "shaped article" having been shaped, by cutting it to proper size from the bulk cloth, and, typically, finished as by hemming or taping the edges. Within the purview of the invention, the shaped articles of the invention are further limited to the type which are normally placed in contact with, or juxtaposed to, an odorant to be deodorized, as contrasted with bulk material such as sheeting or a bale of linters which only by sheer accident would find themselves in contact with odorant to be deodorized.
Having thus defined these terms, it is now stated that the invention further comprehends manufactures, especially adapted to carry out the methods of the invention and defined as configured into shaped articles comprising this aforementioned material and normally juxtaposed to either a primary source of odorant or a secondary source of odorant or both with anion exchange material in contact with odorant and typically the articles being ordinary articles of commerce or substantial copies thereof used to accomplish their usual prior art functions and altered only in that they have components endowed with active ion exchange sites. This aspect of the invention involves the realizations that ion exchange is subject to the law of mass action; that all odorants in a livable environment are present in only very high dilutions; and therefore even an odorant substance that exhibits only a very low affinity for a particular ion exchanger will be quantitatively sorbed when the gas carrying it contacts the ion exchanger. Economically and conveniently the invention thus typically achieves, without the need for a separate deodorant article or substance, the important feature of deodorizing as a new additional function incident to the ordinary use of an ordinary article of commerce while accomplishing its ordinary intended prior art functions, and this without the need for essentially any gross structural changes to the article of a major or intolerable nature. Within this defined class of manufactures of the invention is a preferred group of articles especially useful: those articles normally juxtaposed to a body and in contact with odorant when so juxtaposed.
As used herein, a primary source of odorant means one where the odorant is either inherent or is, in effect, being generated. Examples are a substance, such as butyric acid, that by nature exhibits an odor and an infected wound where odorant is being generated from normally relatively odorless tissue by decomposition or other chemical action. As used herein a secondary source of odorant means an odoriferous region of atmosphere immediately adjacent to, and disposed to flow into, or out of, a confined space. An example is odoriferous air which enters a window or duct leading into a room, building, chamber or the like, or which enters the respiratory passages of an animal or human. As used in the context herein-above, "normally" juxtaposed means that for the purpose of carrying out its customary intended functions and/or when carrying them out, the article is juxtaposed as indicated.
Since typically, the invention contemplates the convenient, economical, regeneration of the ion exchange sites used in the articles of the invention, the invention involves the use of weak base anion exchangers as a preferred group. These can be regenerated conveniently and inexpensively and without undue hazard requiring special precautions or commercial facilities since all that is required to regenerate them is ordinary soap, or detergent, or any other substance which, as they do, gives a basis reaction to litmus.
From another point of view the invention comprehends practical articles of wear (including, especially, articles of wearing apparel) fabricated of components comprising anion exchange material such, for example, as aminated cotton (also sometimes called aminized cotton). Within this concept of the invention is the discovery that such articles embodying such anion exchange material, although typically constructed in the same configurations in which they customarily appear in the prior art made of cotton or other usual fabrics will, without the need of additional material causing undesired bulkiness, provide enough anion exchange sites to deodorize for a practical length of time. Also within this concept of the invention is the discovery essential to a practical innovation, that such articles comprised of aminated cotton, which substance is already known in the prior art in various raw material forms (e.g. Textile Research Journal, Vol. 23, p.523ff. and p.527ff.) can be quite easily adequately washed (and simultaneously regenerated) by commonly used laundering processes, although to fabricate with aminated cotton such articles, which are typically made of materials specially selected to resist soiling and wash easily, is directly contrary to the teaching of the prior art that aminated cotton is more easily soiled and retains soil more tenaciously than ordinary cotton. The invention includes the realization, confirmed by repeated tests, that to achieve wholly satisfactory cleaning of the typically reusable articles of the invention by even such simple laundering as washing by hand or in a home type washing machine it suffices merely to insure that the soap or detergent used is selected from the commonly available group that is at least weakly alkaline.
Further to complete the notion of the practicality of these articles, the invention comprehends the discoveries that such articles comprised of material such as aminated cotton exhibit an acceptable hand and tests have failed to show any reduction in the lives of these articles when subjected to normal usage and washings as compared to the lives of similar articles comprised of ordinary cotton.